96 players competed for the title in this exciting event. New to this month’s competition, the top-8 players played a top cut to decide the winner. The tournament was played in the Standard format at the time — Primal Clash through Sun & Moon.

How well are you performing in Play! Pokemon tournaments this season?

I currently have 162 CP in the Senior division from local League Cups and Challenges.

Why did you decide to participate in this tournament?

I don’t have the means to play competitively outside of my local scene because I can’t travel myself, so I entered to get some extra practice in.

What deck did you play for the May TCG Cup?

I played Decidueye-GX / Vileplume with a Jolteon-EX tech. The metagames I had seen in the past few TCG Cups had a lot of Dark and Volcanion, and I didn’t face a single Decidueye in April, so I figured that hurting the mirror match to ensure better matchups against those decks by including Jolteon-EX would be a good idea.

What kind of decks give yours trouble? Which are good matchups?

Jolteon wrecks Turbo Dark and Volcanion, and most other decks have trouble dealing with turn one Item lock. It’s difficult to pin down Decidueye matchups, because if you get a strong start you can beat just about anything meta (read: not Quad Wobbuffet). I think the meta deck I was most afraid of is M Rayquaza-EX, although I did beat the one that I faced.

What kind of decks did you play against?

What was your most exciting game or match?

Game three of finals playing the mirror versus stevexue, I had a fairly well-developed board while he didn’t have much other than a single Decidueye. He managed to find Lysandre to bring up my Vileplume without a Float Stone and brought it to 10 HP left with Sky Return plus Razor Leaf, which was a big deal because he could then Feather Arrow next turn and regain use of his Items. I managed to find a Rainbow Energy to deal the final 10 damage to Knock Out my Active Vileplume and then even got my Item lock back up with the use of Revitalizer followed by a Razor Leaf Knock Out on his Active Decidueye, and he couldn’t recover from there.

What was your favorite card in your list?

Fourth Rainbow Energy was definitely a choice I would make again. In testing, I tried dropping to three, but I found myself missing attachments too often for my liking. It also allows for more flexibility when Hollow Hunting.

Would you make any changes to your deck or list?

I think the list is pretty much perfect as it is. The only change I would consider making is swapping the Rainbows and Jolteon for a third Lysandre and Grass Energy depending on the meta.

How does Guardians Rising and affect your deck? Is it still viable?

It’s viable, but has to adapt a lot to work around Garbodor, which is a very difficult matchup for current Decidueye builds if you don’t draw really well.

Other Top Finishers

Coming in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places were Jing Zhang (stevexue), Billel Helali (Dadoum), and Alex Mei (TheAnticipationEevee). All three won a bunch of booster packs from the latest expansions, but Billel got a huge increase in prizes because they are a premium subscriber. You can see how many packs each of them earned at the top of this page. Their deck lists can be seen below:

The top finishers also earned Prize Wall points on TCGplayer.com, which allows them to exchange their points for even more products like booster packs and promo boxes.

Everyone in the Top 32 of PokeBeach’s monthly tournaments will also receive Prize Wall points via e-mail. Be sure to check your inboxes!

Creative Deck Winners

As part of every tournament, PokeBeach’s article writers voted for the five premium members whom they felt used the most creative deck lists, and each of them earned some additional booster packs or a promo product.

Want to Become a Premium Member?

PokeBeach writer Alex Koch

July’s tournament will be posted within the last week of June, and June’s tournament is currently underway. Each tournament awards up to 7 booster boxes of product to top finishers plus promo products and additional booster packs to premium members. The prizes for premium members received a huge increase too, so don’t miss your chance to play in the next tournament!

If you’re interested in becoming a premium member, be sure to check out this link. All premium members get reserved slots in the tournaments, a huge increase in prizes, double the amount of Prize Wall points, a chance to win even more product for using creative decks, and of course all the other benefits that go along with having a premium membership, including weekly articles from the game’s top players and deck help from said players. A premium membership is extremely diverse!

Thanks, TCGplayer!

All of these prizes are brought to you by TCGplayer.com. Their online store offers the cheapest Pokemon cards on the Internet from thousands of different sellers — you will find no better deals! So be sure to check them out any time you want to purchase or sell Pokemon cards!

You can always check the “Sets” tab at the top of our website to access their store.

(Note: The Pokémon Company International is not a sponsor or endorser of PokeBeach’s tournaments, contests, or prizes, nor does the company or its affiliates have any formal association with PokeBeach. Our activities are by fans, for fans, and are not sanctioned or approved by TPCi.)

Want to join PokeBeach's news team? We're currently looking for TCG news writers, especially those who live in time zones where it's night in America (such as Europe). If this interests you, please fill out this application!

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About the Author

Sam VerNooy has been playing the Pokemon TCG since he was three years old when his two older siblings introduced him to the Pokemon franchise. After playing the game casually for several years, he finally went to his first tournament in 2011. Since then, he was qualified for the World Championships three times. Outside of Pokemon tournaments, Sam has been homeschooled his whole life, with other interests including acting, gaming, and of course managing PokeBeach's article program.